Boat covers to provide shelter are well known within the prior art and are most often used to protect the boat itself, or are limited to use as a hunting blind. The known prior art that are suitable for camping, or covering the boater are much too complicated, and do not allow the boater to easily stand within the boat when attached, such as taught within the present invention.
Examples of such prior art are taught within U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,458,079, 5,303,667 and 4,300,253. Unfortunately, these covers are difficult to assemble, are very bulky and limited in use.
Taught within U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,723, they provide a cover which uses a flexible resilient rib, however, only one rib is taught, whereas the present invention utilizes multiple ribs which provide increased usable space, as well as increased strength. Another example of prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,203, which teaches a camouflaged cover having complicated adjustable frames and is limited to use as a duck blind.
In addition, nowhere in the prior art did the applicants find an accessory cover which includes a tie-down, such as a bungee cord or the like, which allows the cover to be easily adjustable and fit boats of various sizes. Furthermore, nowhere in the prior art did the applicants find use of a slip lock to assure a tight fit around the entire diameter of the boat, as taught within the present invention.
The attachment means used to attach the frames or ribs to the cover as taught within the prior art, are complicated and involve many unnecessary parts, which the present invention eliminates.
The present invention addresses and resolves the problems associated with the prior art, such as we provide simplified fiberglass tent ribs which are easily inserted within rib pockets, with the pockets being strategically placed to hold the rib. The pocket is mounted using one screw only or adhesive and eliminates the need for complex type attachment means, such as found within the prior art.